


Life in Port Charles

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital (TV 1963)
Genre: 3M and Glo, Alternate History, Character Death, Developing Relationship, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, Love Triangles, Mystery, Original Characters - Freeform, Rare Characters, Rare Pairings, Revisionist History, Robert Guza I can't decide if I miss you or not!, Serial Killers, fixing 2007 my way, text message killer storyline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25838050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: The era of the Text Message Killer and sex bets gone awry. [A castfic]
Relationships: Alexis Davis/David Harper, Cooper Barrett/Maxie Jones, Jason Morgan & Original Female Character(s), Logan Hayes/Georgie Jones, Lucky Spencer/Elizabeth Webber, Nikolas Cassadine/Nadine Crowell, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Samantha "Sam" McCall/Cruz Rodriguez, Sonny Corinthos/Kate Howard





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter introduces my original female character Cammie Lansing. Ric's half-sister via Trevor. She's kinda a bitch at first, but maybe we can mellow her out a bit over time. She is 'played by' the amazing actress Heather Tom.

**Chapter One**  
  
 _ **December 2007**_  
  
It was going on seven p.m. and Ric Lansing was knee-deep in depositions. Suddenly he heard the door to his office open. He looked up to see none other than the mayor standing there, watching him, a little taunting smile on his craggy face. Ric wanted to tell him to get out and planned to do just that but was caught off guard rather uncharacteristically when Garrett shoved a thick padded envelope into his right hand. “What the hell is this?” Ric asked.  
  
“Your walking papers. I think you’ll find your severance package is more than generous.” Garrett started to turn around and walk out but Ric quickly tossed the envelope down and moved around the desk. He blocked Garrett’s exit with his body and good arm outstretched.  
  
“What the hell is all this all about, Floyd?” Ric asked darkly. “You can’t get rid of me. I am the best damn attorney in the whole state of New York.”  
  
“See now it’s that kind of cockiness that has always been your downfall.” Garrett shook his head. “I am afraid we don’t need your services anymore, Mr. Lansing. Your personal vendettas have cost the city a lot of time and money and now you’re out. Take some time off to convalesce. Doesn’t your arm hurt?”  
  
Ric wanted to grab the son of a bitch by the lapels of his cheap suit jacket but resisted. Instead, he glared at him. “Tell me who put you up to this. Was it Sam McCall? Or more likely, her mother Alexis - who wants to get back at me for every imagined wrong under the sun.”  
  
Garrett sighed. “It was just your time. I’ll send someone to help you clear out your belongings since you’re somewhat indisposed.” He pushed past Ric, nearly clipping his cast. Ric was tempted to beat Garrett over the head with the broad side of it but simply turned around and stared after him.  
  
“I assume you have someone in mind to replace me.”  
  
Garrett paused in his tracks. “We do.”  
  
“I can assure you that they won’t be as half good as I am.”  
  
“You always were so narcissistic, Richard,” a voice spoke up. A very familiar voice, in fact. Ric’s eyes zeroed in on the statuesque brunette with green flecked eyes walking in the door of the station. She moved in his direction, briefcase in hand. Her pin-striped suit was in perfect condition, pressed, tailored and clean. Not a hair was out of place and she looked confidant, calm and collected. Time seemed to have frozen. It had been nearly nine years since he’d last seen her, but he’d know her anywhere. She looked and sounded just the same.  
  
“Cammie, what the hell are you doing here?” Ric’s eyes narrowed. He gave her a withering look that should have made her turn into vapor right before his very eyes but Camilla Lynn Lansing wasn’t afraid of him, not even close. In fact she was one of the few people who could not be intimidated and pushed around by him. She’d learned to fight fire with fire. She’d had to growing up the way she did, with two unscrupulous men for role models.  
  
She set her briefcase down on a nearby desk. “I’m surprised you haven’t guessed, Ric. Here we all thought your brain was as sharp as your tongue.” She moved over to Garrett and held out her hand to him. He took it and gave it a firm shake.  
  
“Welcome aboard, Ms. Lansing.”  
  
Ric now knew exactly what was going on. “You’re after my job.”  
  
Cammie said nothing as she slipped her small hand into the pocket of her tailored suit jacket. She had a decidedly haughty look in her eyes as Garrett spoke up. “You don’t work here anymore, Ric. You’re finished as district attorney. _Finito._ Fired.”  
  
“So you replaced me with her – my own sister?” Ric growled. “She has always had a grudge against me and this proves it.”  
  
“Now, Ric, I think we both know that when it comes to grudges, no one can harbor one quite like you,” Cammie said. She lifted her briefcase off the table and looked at Garrett again. “Which way to my new office?”  
  
Ric glared at her as Garrett pointed beyond him. Cammie walked purposefully forward and slipped into the office behind him. He thought about barring the door but knew she’d find some way back in. She was clever; fiendish actually. In some ways, she took after him. In some ways, he almost admired her piss-and-vinegar attitude but not now. Not when she had just usurped his position. This was personal and he was going to pay her back tenfold for her betrayal.  
  
“You can’t do the job the way I have,” Ric barked. “Not even close. You don’t have what it takes.”  
  
“My Harvard Law degree says differently, Ric,” she said. She slid into the plush leather chair and swiveled around to face him. “I can do this job better than you ever could because I won’t let my personal feelings get in the way. And this really is not personal, Ric.”  
  
“The hell it’s not!” He barked. “You’re going to regret this, sister dearest. Somehow I will make you pay.”  
  
Cammie raised a perfectly shaped dark brown eyebrow. “Threatening an officer of the court in front of witnesses?” She asked, crossing her arms. “Not smart, Richard, not even for you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to work.”  
  
Garrett looked at Ric. “I can have an officer escort you out.”  
  
“No need.” He glared at his younger half-sister again. “Burn,” he said, giving her a dark look.  
  
She just shook her head and watched him go. He reached the door and she suddenly called after him. “Ric, if you need another job I hear they’re hiring at the local Pizza Hut.”  
  
He rolled his eyes and kept walking. Revenge was a dish best served up cold, after all.  
  
XoXoxo  
  
Elizabeth Webber climbed out of her mini-van and dropped to the ground. Her face was flushed and her eyes bright. She was still incredibly sad in so many ways but she had just been with Jason – coupling with him not one but two times in their little safe house – and they had comforted each other in ways only they could. She realized that they belonged together, right or wrong. But she was afraid of being with him, afraid that his life would touch their son. So they only showed their loving feelings for each other behind closed doors.  
  
The street was eerily quiet as she climbed the steps at the Spencer house. Her boys were at her grandmother’s place and they would be there for the rest of the night. Elizabeth hadn’t even had to ask Audrey to watch them this time. Her Grams had instinctively known that as it had only been a few days since Elizabeth had buried her best friend, that she needed time to herself. Grams was unaware though, like everyone else, that Elizabeth was now actively sleeping with Jason Morgan. She wished with all of her heart that they could go public but it wasn’t to be. Jake’s safety had to be her first priority. It wasn’t his fault that he had been born with a virtual target on his little back.  
  
Darkness had long since fallen as she navigated her way to the porch and climbed the short three steps to the landing. She opened her purse and started to fish around for her keys. She cursed herself for not remembering to leave the porch light on. Visibility was poor, especially this late at night. The moon was tucked behind several large clouds and a chill was in the air that she realized had little to do with the snowy weather.  
  
She shivered then, feeling as if she were being watched and quickly scrambled for her keys and shoved them blindly into the lock. Fortunately the doorknob turned in her little fist right away and she ran inside. She immediately bolted the door after her, pressing her trembling body against the wooden frame.  
  
She lifted the blinds and looked outside. There was no one on the street. She realized she was being silly. All of the Text Message Killer items in the news had just made her jumpy; losing Emily so tragically had made her paranoid… She was fine.  
  
Her heart rate stabilized a bit and she took a deep breath. She started to reach for the light switch when suddenly a hand came down over hers. She started to scream but then another hand was covering her mouth. _“Don’t scream,”_ a husky voice demanded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**  
  
“Cooper, can I talk to you for a moment?” Georgie Jones asked as she came upon Cooper Barrett sitting at a table in the corner of Kelly’s diner. She had been waitressing when she saw him come in that morning. He was looking oh-so-miserable and serious, his head hung low and his shoulders drooping. She knew that only Hurricane Maxie blowing through his life could invoke such a look. Maxie had really messed up royally this time with that sex bet. It was mystifying to Georgie how her sister could constantly get herself into these kinds of situations.  
  
Cooper looked up at her as he swirled his coffee absent-mindedly in a ceramic cup. “Hey, Georgie. If this is about Maxie –“  
  
Georgie sighed and nodded. “It is, Cooper. She’s really miserable without you. Really, really miserable. She can’t eat, or sleep, or –“  
  
Cooper held up a hand to stop her. “Stop there. I don’t need you to plead Maxie’s case for her. I get that you love her and –“  
  
“You love her too,” Georgie said. “And you’re miserable without her – as miserable as she is without you.”  
  
“It doesn’t matter, Georgie. I can’t be with someone that I don’t trust, someone that would go behind my back with my best friend. Scratch that – my _so-called_ best friend.” He sighed again. “I want to forgive her, I want to get past this, but I don’t know if I can.”  
  
“You don’t have to forgive her, not right away. Just please, reach out to her. Not for her sake exactly, but for yours,” Georgie pleaded. “I mean, you look really –“  
  
“Shitty?”  
  
“I was going to say lonely and unhappy. But you do have dark circles under your eyes, just like Maxie.”  
  
“I guess I don’t sleep very good without her next to me.”  
  
Georgie offered him a gentle smile. “You definitely still love her. You need each other so please, please go and talk to her. She’s at home today, feeling miserable nursing the flu. You’d be just the person to cheer her up.”  
  
Cooper seemed to think it over, long and hard, and then he finally nodded. Georgie smiled. “You’re going?”  
  
“Yes, I guess. I miss her. I want to see her even if she is ill,” Cooper said. “But I won’t make any promises…”  
  
“You don’t have to.”  
  
“Do you think I can get a cup of warm chicken soup to go?”  
  
“Absolutely,” Georgie agreed. “I’ll go get it right now.”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Maxie sat in the bathroom, ass to cold tile, as she hugged the toilet, as if for dear life. She had been feeling this way for over two months now. She had tried so hard to hide her condition but it was beginning to be impossible. She was sick all the time – not just in the morning like the misnomer said – but every other moment of the day as well. Despite her constant retching, her clothes were getting tighter. She could no longer fit into her signature Versace party dress, not that she exactly felt like partying. The last time she had been at a party was the black and white ball and well, the less said about that night, the better.  
  
Her breasts ached as she accidentally bumped them against the bathtub as she pulled herself to her feet. She groaned and moved unsteadily over to the mirror above the sink. She looked god-awful. Her face was filled out but her cheeks still looked hollow somehow. Her eyes were bloodshot and rimmed like a raccoon’s. Even her blonde pixyish hair looked limp and lifeless. The thing that really caught her eyes though was the curve of her body. She was beginning to fill out, especially in the chest area, not to mention in her waistline.  
  
A single tear trickled down her face. There was no more hiding it, no more denying, or trying to talk herself out of it. The truth was evident.  
  
 _She was pregnant._  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Sam McCall’s eyelashes fluttered open as she rolled over in bed. She discovered Lucky still asleep, snoring quietly. She loved that snore. She was used to waking up to it now and she really loved the sound of it. It was familiar and comforting and she needed familiar and comforting these days more than anything. She instinctively snuggled up to his side and lightly slid her slender arm around his waist. He was naked under the covers, as was she, and she could once again see how truly amazing his body was. He was a wonderful man and they were happy together right now. Still, she was incredibly afraid that it wouldn’t last. No matter how many times he asked her to trust him, to trust in them, she simply couldn’t do it. Especially not when she was keeping this major secret from him. If he found out …  
  
She sighed and even though the sound was soft, it made Lucky stir. He opened his brilliant aqua eyes and looked at her. “Hey, Sam,” he said in a sexy, husky morning voice.  
  
“Hey, how’d you sleep?”  
  
“Great. This is a really comfortable mattress,” Lucky teased. She elbowed him in the side and he laughed. “Actually, I slept like a baby knowing you were next to me the whole time.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “I like waking up to you.”  
  
“I do too,” Sam said. “You’re really a beautiful sight to wake up to.”  
  
Lucky smirked. “I believe that’s my line.”  
  
“Oh come on, Spencer. You know you’re hot.”  
  
“Thanks, but I happen to think you’re pretty amazing yourself,” he said. He reached out and pulled her face down to his, nudging her lips apart with his tongue as her hands went to his chest, running lightly over his nipples. He murmured something unintelligible but that sounded really pleased and she pulled herself atop of his body, pushing aside the covers. They had the best sex. The very best sex of her life, if she were completely honest.  
  
His hands came to cup each of her ass cheeks as she straddled him. “Make love to me, Lucky,” she murmured.  
  
Lucky nodded and kissed her again, reaching for one of her large breasts and fondling it until the nipple was aroused and protruding. Lucky started to roll her beneath him when the ringing of his cell phone interrupted him. She groaned as he reached for it. “Hold that thought. It could be work,” he said. She would rather be holding his dick in between her hands, but she simply nodded. She flopped down on the mattress beside him and stared up at the ceiling as he answered the phone.  
  
“Hello?” He said. _“Audrey?_ What’s going on?”  
  
Sam sighed. Audrey Hardy was calling. Elizabeth’s grandmother. This couldn’t be good. Not at all. She started counting the ceiling tiles one by one, ignoring Lucky’s voice as best as she could. Elizabeth was going to need something and Lucky was going to rush out to save her like every man did.  
  
Sam really hated that woman.  
  
Lucky hung up the phone and immediately rolled off the bed, reaching for his rumpled black boxer briefs. He looked over at Sam apologetically. “I’ve got to go. I’m so sorry.”  
  
"It’s Liz, huh? She what – broke a nail?”  
  
“Sam,” Lucky said. “Don’t be like that. She was supposed to pick up the boys this morning at Audrey’s and she never showed. Audrey has been calling and calling her with no answer. Audrey is very worried.”  
  
“So why doesn’t Audrey go and check on Elizabeth herself?”  
  
“She’s getting the boys ready for daycare,” Lucky said. “Don’t be mad, okay?”  
  
“I’m not mad,” Sam said. “Just don’t expect me to suck you off anytime soon.” She was being petulant, she knew it, and she didn’t care. Elizabeth wasn’t content with having Jason’s attention. She wanted Lucky’s too and every other man’s. Sam hated being abandoned so Lucky could play her hero. She’d had quite enough of that to last a lifetime.  
  
Lucky sighed as he yanked on the rest of his clothes and stood up. “I’ll make it up to you, okay? I’m only going to check on Elizabeth because she’s the mother of my kids, nothing more.”  
  
Sam nodded but rolled over, away from Lucky’s reach, as he tried to touch her. He sighed loudly, said “goodbye”, and was gone then. Sam reached for the nearest thing she could find – the lamp – and hurtled it across the room. It smacked into the wall and shattered into a hundred irreparable pieces.  
  
So incredibly appropriate.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Lucky drove across town, a growing sense of urging sitting in the pit of his stomach. He had tried calling Elizabeth himself – about five times already – and she hadn’t answered his calls either. He was getting worried though he didn’t completely understand why. Perhaps it was just one of those gut feelings cop’s got from time to time.  
  
He pulled up in front of his family’s house and killed the engine. The place looked the same as always but he felt an eerie feeling niggling his mind now. He pulled his house keys from his pocket and hurried up the walk. He was calling her name the whole time. “Elizabeth. Elizabeth, are you here?”  
  
He put his hand on the doorknob and it gave away easily in his grasp. It was unlocked. He walked inside and was immediately shocked at what he saw. The place was a complete mess. Pictures were broken, as was the lamp and mirror above the mantle. Furniture was ripped to shreds and overturned.  
  
“Elizabeth!” He screamed. _“Liz!”_ What the hell had happened here? Did he even want to know?  
  
He started to run for the stairs when he heard a soft, smothered groan. He quickly turned around and trotted back towards the kitchen. That’s when he saw two lean denim-clad legs sticking out from behind the sofa. He immediately scaled a fallen chair to get to her. She was face-down on the carpet and a large bloody gash was on her forehead.  
  
“Elizabeth,” he cried and dropped to his knees. He knew he shouldn’t try to touch her or to move her, but he had to. He turned her over, cradling her gently in his arms. “Elizabeth, talk to me, sweetheart,” he said, as he touched her cheek. The opposite one was scratched and weeping. “Elizabeth.” She just groaned and he pressed a trembling fingertip to her pulse point. Her pulse felt incredibly weak.  
  
He tucked her head on his lap and reached for his cell phone. He dialed 911 and started barking at them in a tearful voice…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**  
  
“Did you see the new D.A.?” Detective Cruz Rodriguez asked as he walked over to his partner, fellow detective David Harper. Harper was leaning off the edge of his desk, straining his eyes to see into Cammie’s office. “I guess you have.”  
  
“Oh yes I have,” Harper said with a lascivious smile. “I hear she’s Ric Lansing’s sister but I can’t say that I see the resemblance.”  
  
“Me either. She is so much easier on the eyes,” Cruz agreed as he too slipped onto the desk and craned his neck to get a look at Cammie. She had her head bent and was going over some file. She wore horn-rimmed reading glasses and Cruz thought they looked completely sexy on her. They made her look sophisticated and intelligent – a winning combination if there ever was one.  
  
As if she sensed she was being ogled, Cammie lifted her dark head and peered at them. She shook her head and quickly stood. She smoothed down the front of her blue, pin-striped suit jacket and then moved over to the door. She slammed it loudly in their gaping faces.  
  
“Oooh cold,” Harper said.  
  
“She clearly doesn’t like you,” Cruz chortled.  
  
Harper rolled his eyes. “She let me stare at her until you came over. Anyway, I bet she’s totally hot for me.”  
  
Cruz was the one rolling his eyes now. “Yeah and I’m the King of England.”  
  
Harper ran a hand through his somewhat shaggy brown hair. “She is into me. I know it. The way she looked at me…”  
  
Cruz laughed loudly. “She looked at you like you were gum on her pretty shoes. I bet you she never even speaks to you. You’re just another lowly grunt worker to her.”  
  
Harper puffed out his toned chest. “I’ll take that bet. By the end of the week, she’ll be putty in my hands. And I bet I can get her to go out with me Saturday night. No doubt about it, actually.”  
  
“You are a cocky sonuvabitch.”  
  
“Afraid to put your money where your mouth is?”  
  
Cruz shook his head. “Not at all. Put me down for two hundred.”  
  
“Consider it done,” Harper said and shook Cruz’s hand. He looked back at her door. “I am so going to get her and when I do, I’m going to-”  
  
“Ahem,” a masculine voice said behind them. They both jumped, turning to see Commissioner Mac Scorpio standing there, looking none too pleased. “Are you done with your locker room talk? Because you need to get to work.”  
  
Cruz and Harper nodded. “More than done,” Cruz said and he and Harper jumped off the desk, scurrying in opposite directions. Cruz slid into his desk chair and was just reaching for a file when his favorite, hardworking dispatcher hurried over. She was breathless and her face was red. “Hey, Louise, what’s up?” He asked.  
  
“Detective Spencer just called in here,” Louise said, clutching her chest. “Oh god, it sounds terrible.”  
  
Cruz got to his feet. “What are you talking about?”  
  
“Detective Spencer’s wife – I mean, ex-wife – was found nearly bludgeoned to death at her place. Detective Spencer was the one who found her and he’s borderline hysterical and the crime scene may be compromised because –“  
  
“Because he was thinking like a lover rather than a cop,” Cruz finished. He snapped his fingers at Harper. “Harper, we’ve got an issue that needs handling. I’ll tell you about it in the car. Let’s go.” He looked at the flustered Louise and offered her a small smile. “Thanks.”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Mayor Floyd asked as a stream of police officers came running by him.  
  
“Looks like the infamous Text Message Killer struck again,” Mac Scorpio answered, stepping forward. He had a pensive look on his face. “The bastard may have claimed another of our own. Detective Spencer’s ex-wife was attacked last night.”  
  
“Dammit,” Garrett said. “This means more hysterical people will be pestering me about town safety and beefing up the police force. Like we can afford that,” he grumbled and stalked down the hall. He arrived at Cammie’s office and walked right in.  
  
“Ms. Lansing,” he greeted her tersely. “How are you settling into the new job?”  
  
Cammie looked up. “I like to think, very well. I am due to present my first case here tomorrow morning. We are arraigning one Anthony Jenello for breaking and entering.”  
  
“You’re going to shred him to pieces I hope,” Garrett said. “We need to show the city that we have no tolerance for crime.”  
  
Cammie nodded and slipped off her glasses, setting them on the desk. “Oh I’m going to eat him alive.”  
  
“Good. Once you’ve done that, we can move onto bigger things.”  
  
“Such as?”  
  
“Prosecuting the damn serial killer roaming the streets of Port Charles. It’s been months since his reign of terror began but I have to believe he’ll trip up eventually. Or at least that’s what I’ll tell my constituents.”  
  
Cammie nodded. “I’ve heard a lot about the case. It made the papers in Chicago even.”  
  
“Yeah tabloids eat that shit up,” Garrett said with a shake of his head. “It's making me look bad and I don’t like it. I may have to bring in the FBI and I hate to do that. We’ve been beating them off in droves up until now but given that one of our own’s wife is involved…”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I guess a wife or ex-wife or something of one of the officers here was found after being attacked. I doubt she will make it because my day is just going so fucking great already.” Sarcasm dripped like acid from his tongue and Cammie tried to hide her frown of distaste. It seemed that the mayor was anything but professional. But he had given her this job and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, if the Text Message Killer she had heard so much about was brought in, she’d have a ball bringing him to his knees and humbling him in front of the whole country. This case would absolutely make her career. She intended to see what she could find out about it when she had the chance.  
  
“Anyway, I’ll let you go,” the mayor said. “You get back to work. Don’t waste our tax dollars.” He gave her a tight smile and slipped out the door, shutting it behind him.  
  
A second later the door was being hammered on anew. She figured it was the mayor back to annoy her, but to her surprise, none other than Trevor Lansing stood there. Cammie rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?” She barked.  
  
He smiled that shit-eating grin that she had always hated so damn much. “Now, Camilla, is that any way to talk to your father?”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
The paramedics seemed to be taking far too long to arrive. Lucky had tears pooling in his eyes as he held Elizabeth’s frail, badly beaten body in his arms and said silent prayers to a god he didn’t quite believe in. He had pulled a blanket over Elizabeth to keep her warm but she wasn’t even trembling from the chill morning air. In fact, at this point she seemed beyond the point of feeling anything at all. He whispered her name, “Elizabeth. Elizabeth, you’re going to be okay? Alright, baby, you’re going to be just fine.”  
  
Finally, after what seemed like hours had passed, rather than mere minutes, he heard the sound of sirens screeching in the distance. A tear rolled down his face and he touched Elizabeth’s painfully cold hand. “Help is here, Elizabeth. They’re going to take really good care of you.” He heard footsteps approaching in the next minute and the door was being pushed open by the paramedics, a woman and a man. They barked instructions at him to step aside but he was afraid to. Afraid if he let her go for even a moment she was going to slip away, forever. The thought terrified him.  
  
But he finally stepped aside as his friends Harper and Cruz came bursting onto the scene. “Lucky, what the hell happened here?” Harper asked.  
  
Lucky wiped his teary eyes as the three of them looked around at the utter destruction around them. “I found Liz … I found her like that. Her skull… It’s … Oh god. I don’t know if she’ll make it.”  
  
“I bet she will,” Cruz said. “If I know anything about Elizabeth, it’s that she’s really strong. I know she can beat this.”  
  
Lucky nodded but he felt as unsure as they both looked. He turned to see the paramedics load Elizabeth onto the stretcher and wheel her towards the door. Lucky immediately gave chase, calling after them that he was going to ride in the ambulance with his wife. He used the word “wife” and he didn’t even realize it really. It just felt so natural falling off of his tongue.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
When Lucky was gone, Harper and Cruz gave instructions to two other officers - two green deputies, actually - to start roping off the area. They knew the newshounds would be descending soon and they didn’t want anything else to disturb their crime scene. They watched the Crime Scene Investigators filter into the house and begin their task. Harper and Cruz pulled on latex gloves of their own and helped dust for prints. Likely there would be none that belonged to the serial killer. Assuming that the Text Message Killer had done this. Something didn’t ring true to Cruz. He looked up at Harper as Harper walked over.  
  
“She must have put up a good fight,” Harper observed. “Normally the killer offs his victims quickly and quietly and doesn’t leave them around to tell the tale.”  
  
“That’s what’s weird,” Cruz said, taping his chin thoughtfully. “This feels different somehow. I mean, the TMK has never been one to leave a victim alive. He never makes a mess like this and he always uses a garrote of some kind. He chokes them too. He does not smash them over the head … I mean, honestly, Harp, this has all the hallmarks of the work of a disorganized killer.”  
  
Harper lifted a pensive eyebrow. “Which we know the TMK is not.”  
  
“Yeah he’s not one to make mistakes like this …”  
  
“Are you thinking what I am thinking, Rodriguez?”  
  
“Depends. Are you thinking we may have two homicidal maniacs on the loose?”  
  
Harper nodded. “I am afraid that _was_ what I was thinking …”


End file.
